The Epicenters of Coro-Politics: Still on Rivers State… The other side of Governor Ayade - Ik Muo, PhD.

We continue with our discussion on the political dynamics of this interesting war against Oga- Coro, starting  with some matters arising from last week’s intervention, which  mostly focused on  Governor Wike’s  unique Coro-war strategy. There have been certain strange developments in River State in the past one week. Most of us would remember what happened years ago, (2003) in the days of Amaechi, when the Federal Government  almost established a parallel government   in the State, with Joseph Mbu, the Commissioner of Police as the alternate governor and chief enforcer. That was during the era of   free-for-all war and ‘attempted coup’ in the Rivers State House of Assembly. It got so bad that the nascent APC  directed its members in the National Assembly to boycott executive bills, including the 2014 budget, until the presidency resolved the Rivers’ crisis. That was in the aftermath  of the formation of nPDP, when Amaechi and 6  other rebel-governors joined the APC, were immediately celebrated as progressive change-masters, and all their sins were washed away and everything became anew( Ik Muo, From nPDP to nAPC and then what? 14/5/18). Then, Amaechi had accused Mr Mbu of colluding with the presidency to undermine his government. This is 2020, the APC is now in power at the center ( with Amaechi as one of its stalwart) and another Mbu Scenario is rearing its ugly head

 The two Josephs: Mbu & Mukan

 You all recall how the  Rivers Commissioner of Police, Mustapha Dandaura, forgot that he was a federal employee and brazenly joined Wike in the onslaught against the federally empowered  Caverton. At the height of the Caverton saga, the unfortunate cop became a victim of the high-wire intrigues, got redeployed  to the Force Headquarters  as the provost, and was replaced with Joseph Mukan.  The first act of the new COMPOL was to establish a ‘Technical Committee to ensure the movement of agricultural products and other essential items into Rivers State’. In effect, the FG, has established a parallel Task Force in River State, where Wike is the GOC of the existing state taskforce.

Is this history repeating itself?  Is this the era of another Mbu, who proudly declared himself the ‘tamer of Amaechi’?  It is an ironic twist of history that   the first one was Joseph Mbu and this one is Joseph Mukan and that Frank Mba, the Police PRO  during that period  is also the current Police PRO!  And our politicians have been behaving true to character. The  River State caucus in the NASS ( peopled by PDP), asked the President to disband this taskforce because “This development is sour and highly confrontational not only to the authorities of the Rivers State Government but to her citizens and residents. The APC, through its South-South Zonal Secretary, David Okumagba, asked the president to ‘carry go’, because disbanding the federal taskforce, would  ‘plunge Rivers residents and indigenes into further economic hardship and  psychological trauma’!  Both parties are responding to the same matter and in the interest of the same residents and citizens! So, now, there are two task-forces in PH. The State Task Force, directly commanded by Governor Wike himself and the Joint Task-Force, commanded by ComPol Mukan. One interesting thing is that the state and federal units are both  ‘forces’. So, what happens when an irresistible force confronts  an irremovable force? This is a federation and ideally, the federating units have their powers and limits. But Nigeria is the only centralized federation in the world where the FG is the author and finisher of everything. In this case, a state ‘bold-facing’ for the FG is like nza the tiny bird, whom under the influence of alcohol, challenges its chi to a wrestling contest!. This is not a normal situation, even now when everything is a new-normal. Our people advise that it is better to uproot that evil tree, which, whenever it bears fruits, people MUST die, before it bears those fruits.  Our people also advise that he whoever wants to separate a fight should step in during the preparatory push-me-I-push -you. I think an evil tree is growing in River State, I think the two-fighting is almost past the push-push stage.

Meanwhile, our people say that whenever the witch cries at night and the baby dies in the morning, it becomes necessary to count our teeth with our tongue!  There is a report that EFCC is seeking to investigate some River State officials over some suspicious  cash withdrawals between 2015 and 2018 and that the RVSG has reminded them of a subsisting order of perpetual injunction ( lawyers go chop now!), explicitly stating that EFCC cannot probe the accounts of River State and its officials.  To those of us who are not initiated, this is a weird injunction! However, EFCC should do its job and RVSG should let it do its job but this strange injunction needs to be sorted out first.

 There are other matters arising from last week’s article. The first is that the manager of the hotel, which Wike demolished recently for flouting the lockup, lockdown and lock-in order has tested positive to the disease of the moment.  This may or may not be true but that does not change my views on that highhanded action. It is also worthy of note that Wike has declared that the demolition of the hotel was not his sole decision but a collective responsibility of the State’s security council.

It wasn’t me

He has also suddenly reversed the fresh proposed lockdown order and without much explanations. Secondly, the Benue index case, our longest ‘serving’ Coro patient, who complicated matters by refusing to cooperate with medics at Makurdi and Abuja, Susan Okpe, has been ‘discharged from detention’, after 58 days, almost two months in the Isolation Center. I do not know whether a test has been carried by World Health Organisation as she demanded. Finally, Anambra State Government, has, in consultation with Delta State, locked up the Niger Bridge to minimize the influx of ‘illegal immigrants’ into the state. The ‘gates’ are opened up at the periods agreed by the two governments. Furthermore, the state has established Coro taskforces in the 21 local governments and 326 political wards but political gladiators are crying foul, seeing the new bidies as campaign vehicles for the 2021 elections! This has forced the state government to issue a strongly-worded statement directed at Political Exposed Persons telling them that ‘neither ndi Anambra nor God will pardon those who politicise the war against Coro!

Wike was the first to block the interstate Federal high way but I do not know whether he consulted the Governor of  Abia State before  closing  their inter-state boarders.

Other Matters: The other side of Governor Ayade

Politics is a means of acquiring power so as to serve the interest of the society. In Nigeria however, politics is a DIRTY game, in which people adopt do-or-die  strategies for self  enrichment and aggrandisement. At times they go beyond self to other levels of ‘myonisation’( my relations my town, my state, my tribe, my church, my friends). In this equation, the people, who are at the center of the political calculus, are not even mentioned, not to think of being considered.   When they mention the people, it is tokenistic, to play to the galary or to fulfill all righteousness. Even people who are good as individuals, get irreparably contaminated once they join the political industry.That is why  most Nigerians, apart from those who have access to the crumbs, hold politicians in disdain. Last month, Professor Ayade   signed an ‘executive order’( that is the in-thing nowadays) on no-facemask-no- movement in Cross River state and then went ahead to distribute facemasks, gratis, to his people, saying that  ‘As governor…I can’t, at this difficult moment when you are asking people to stay at home, also task them to put on masks at a cost.  We as a government have to find a way to reduce the burden on the people’. I noted that compassionate statement, gave it as a model to the PTF-COVID (Other Matters: KITA, by-fire-by- force and  the Management of Covidity: Business Day, 7/5/20) and life went on.

 Recently,( 21/5/20) Prof  Ayade wept on National TV as he bemoaned the hardship which some government agents inflicted on the people through obnoxious taxation. He was so concerned that he established   an anti-tax task force, made up of pastors, asking them to ensure that the poor are not taxed out of existence. He declared that it was  the greatest injustice to tax people ‘who don’t have scholarship for their children, who struggle to have security in their small businesses and struggle to get water with their boreholes…struggle with generators and government is providing almost nothing’. He announced that the following categories of people and businesses were tax-exempt ‘okada riders, taxi drivers, hotel with less than 50 rooms, small saloon owners, mama-put, people struggling to eke a living’ concluding that ‘it is better for me  as a governor to tax my brain than to tax my people’.   On 26/5/20, he also pledged never to cut the salaries of civil servants who were already passing through difficult times, saying he would rather deploy brain capital to solve the state’s Coro economic challenges. I was touched and I am touched. I hope that this is deep-down and not for show, and that he operationalises this compassionate manifesto. Ben Ayade is a professor and I hope he makes up for the mess which some professors caused, especially those involved in electoral activities!  However, when I see a Professor with PhD in Environmental Microbiology (UI),  in the political arena, I lament at what the universities have lost.

-Ik Muo, PhD. Department of Business Administration, OOU, Ago-Iwoye. 08033026625